divination and sooth saying, let's start reading there in verse number nine, the Bible reads,
When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn
to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter,
or a witch, or a charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God; for these nations which thou shalt possess
hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners.
But as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
Pay special attention to verse 15.
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.
Now keep your finger here in Deuteronomy 18, go to Acts chapter 3.
Acts chapter 3 quotes a few things from Deuteronomy chapter 18, and gives us some application.
Acts chapter 3 beginning in verse number 20 reads, "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which
before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution
of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world
began.
For Moses truly said unto the fathers," watch this, this is from Deuteronomy 18, "A prophet
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me.
Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you, and it shall come to
pass that every soul," this was from a little later in Deuteronomy 18, we read it before
the sermon, "and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet
shall be destroyed from among the people."
Now, this designation of the prophet like unto Moses that God would raise up is referring
to Jesus according to Acts chapter 3.
So what we actually get when we take that knowledge, okay, God is specifically referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ here, when we take that back to Deuteronomy 18, here's what we
come up with.
Don't listen to all this superstitious hocus pocus mumbo jumbo horoscopes and diviners
and observing times and enchantments, listen to Jesus, isn't that what he's saying?
Listen to the prophet that I'm going to raise up, and of course that's the son of God Jesus
Christ.
Now, let me give you a divination dictionary definition here, okay?
What does it mean when he says, "Hey, don't listen to anybody who uses divination," because
anybody who uses it is an abomination.
And then a little later, he told them in verse 14 that these wicked nations had hearkened
unto diviners.
The diviners are the ones who use divination.
What does that mean though, divination?
What's the sermon about?
Here's the dictionary definition.
The practice of attempting to foretell future events or to discover hidden knowledge by occult
or supernatural means.
And so basically, instead of listening to the true word of God, instead of reading the
Bible to figure out what truth is, this is seeking to find truth and revelation elsewhere
using superstitious occultic means like omens, signs, horoscopes, numerology, Ouija boards,
palm reading, seances, channeling, aura pictures up in Sedona, or peyote, or transcendental
meditation.
I mean, this can take on a lot of different forms.
And then he talked about not observing times.
He kind of lumps that in.
What does it mean to observe times?
Well, let me read this for you from Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 2.
"Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs
of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them."
Observing times would be like horoscopes because it has to do with different dates and what
the heavenly bodies are doing at that time and in that month and in that year.
It also has to do with astrology, astrologers.
And by the way, every time astrologers are mentioned in the Bible, it's only the Babylonians
because it's mentioned in Isaiah 47 about Babylon, and it's mentioned over and over
again in the book of Daniel with the Babylonians.
That's the only mention that you'll find.
And so astrology, horoscopes, getting scared about Friday the 13th, right, wouldn't that
be observing times and being dismayed at the signs of it?
But also, how about the blood moons and setting a date for the rapture and setting a date
for the second coming based on these occurrences.
This is observing of times.
Now obviously there's nothing wrong with looking at a calendar, counting up years, months, days,
and those things can be very interesting.
But not when we start using them to find hidden or esoteric knowledge about the things of
God.
That God has revealed the things that we need to know unto us through his word, by his spirit.
The secret things belong to the Lord, but that which is revealed belongs to us through
scripture here.
So we don't need to get into all this demonic stuff.
When it comes to observing times, this is brought up in the New Testament in Galatians
4 in regard to the Galatians who had been Judaized.
Because the whole book of Galatians is about the Judaizers.
They're trying to get them to be circumcised, to keep the law of Moses and to do these things.
And he says to them, "You observe days and months and times and years.
I'm afraid of you, lest I've bestowed upon you labor in vain."
So don't be dismayed at the signs of heaven.
Don't be dismayed or observe these superstitions, horoscopes, good luck charms.
You know, a black cat crosses your path.
You walk under a ladder or you break a mirror, you kill a spider, step on a crack, break
your mother's back, you know, any of this stuff.
You know, you spilled the salt or whatever.
You know, this is all foolishness.
Fear God and keep His commandments.
This is the whole duty of man.
Don't fear these type of signs and omens and superstitions.
Fear the Lord.
And if you want to know the truth, it's found in the Bible as revealed by the Holy Spirit
through the reading of the Bible.
But let's talk about this idea of divination.
Now this is something that comes up a lot in the Bible.
This is not a small subject.
This word is used over and over and over again.
Let me give you some examples.
Go to 2 Kings chapter 17.
2 Kings chapter 17, while you're turning there I'll read for you from Chronicles about a
wicked king.
He caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.
Also he observed times and used enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar
spirit, and with wizards he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to
anger.
So we see these things make God angry.
They provoke him to anger, they're known as being evil, and observing times using enchantments,
witchcraft has to do with dealing with what?
A familiar spirit.
This is what we would know as a demon.
This is what we know as the devil.
So this stuff is truly demonic in every sense of the word.
Look at 2 Kings 17 verse 16, it says, "They left all the commandments of the Lord their
God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshiped all
the hosts of heaven, and served Baal (Baal is the devil, Baaliel, Baal, Baal, Beelzebub),
and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination
and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke
them to anger.
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight.
There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes
of Israel which they made.
And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into
the hand of the spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight.
I mean those are some pretty serious consequences for getting into this stuff.
Flip over to chapter 21 since you're there in 2 Kings anyway.
While you're turning there I'll read for you from Jeremiah, "Therefore hearken not ye to
your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor
to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon.
For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should
drive you out, and ye should perish."
Look at 2 Kings 21 verse 6, "He made his son pass through the fire, observe times, and
used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards.
He brought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger."
Notice how these things are all mentioned in the same breath.
God puts these things in the same category.
These are some pretty wicked things.